From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/55759 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Simon Josefsson Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: netrc.el now supports encoded files Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:35:31 +0100 Sender: ding-owner@lists.math.uh.edu Message-ID: References: <4n3caut1yy.fsf@collins.bwh.harvard.edu> <2268.217.208.174.213.1073395735.squirrel@217.208.174.213> <4n8ykkzw59.fsf@collins.bwh.harvard.edu> <4nsmisy8lb.fsf@collins.bwh.harvard.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1073432151 23180 80.91.224.253 (6 Jan 2004 23:35:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 23:35:51 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ding-owner+M4299@lists.math.uh.edu Wed Jan 07 00:35:47 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.13]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1Ae0jj-0007HE-00 for ; Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:35:47 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu) by malifon.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1Ae0jb-0002Id-00; Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:35:39 -0600 Original-Received: from justine.libertine.org ([66.139.78.221] ident=postfix) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1Ae0jX-0002IY-00 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:35:35 -0600 Original-Received: from yxa.extundo.com (178.230.13.217.in-addr.dgcsystems.net [217.13.230.178]) by justine.libertine.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 540673A0026 for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 17:35:34 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: from latte.josefsson.org (yxa.extundo.com [217.13.230.178]) (authenticated bits=0) by yxa.extundo.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i06NZXAU029399 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA bits=168 verify=NO) for ; Wed, 7 Jan 2004 00:35:33 +0100 Original-To: "Ding Mailing List" X-Hashcash: 0:040106:ding@gnus.org:29146301eda2757e In-Reply-To: <4nsmisy8lb.fsf@collins.bwh.harvard.edu> (Ted Zlatanov's message of "Tue, 06 Jan 2004 18:13:04 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110002 (No Gnus v0.2) Emacs/21.3.50 (gnu/linux) Precedence: bulk Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:55759 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:55759 Ted Zlatanov writes: >> The AES specification limit the key lengths and block lengths, if >> you need arbitrary data lengths or password-to-key derivation, you >> must invent your own -- or preferably, use something prepackaged, >> like CMS or OpenPGP. > > OK, so we're back to external utilities... Maybe I'll prepend a > number to the string, so I know the length of the data, and then pad > it to the multiple that rijndael.el likes. I'd really like a > built-in cipher so we don't depend on any external utilities, even if > it's less secure. I agree built-in is good. What we need is a password-to-key function. PBKDF2 from PKCS#5 is simple to implement. IIRC, both arbitrary data lengths and integrity protection of data could be solved by using CCM mode (RFC 3610). Perhaps even a limited OpenPGP implementation is realistic, PGG contains an OpenPGP parser now. > Let's be realistic, most people want some security but a minimum of > hassle. I think that netrc.el should actually complain if the netrc > file is plain text in future Gnus versions, *unless* the user says > it's OK. Whatever scheme we use, it's better than nothing. Depends somewhat on if .authinfo is considered a Gnus file. Perhaps someone is symlinking it to .netrc, which is a standard file used by other applications. >> If the reason people want obfuscation is that real security is too >> costly to set up, using GnuPG for .netrc is probably a good idea -- >> it is as easy to use as the current nerc.el appear to be, and at >> least it aspires to be secure. > > I don't think there's Gnus support for any sort of encryption of netrc > files using GnuPG right now. How would one set that up? It was the > lack of such support that made me sit down and modify netrc.el. Right, I was talking about the hypothetical GnuPG support in netrc.el.